Pennsylvania inmate advocates and the state's Department of Corrections say there is no immediate danger of overcrowding in the prisons at which Vermont's out-of-state inmates will be housed.

Criminal justice advocates and parents of inmates expressed concern because the website for the Pennsylvania facilities where Vermont inmates will be housed show they are at more than 100 percent of their "operational capacities" as of April 30.

A lawyer involved with Pennsylvania inmate issues said a bill in Pennsylvania's legislature, if passed, could also mean tighter quarters if it reinstates mandatory minimum sentences for some drug and violent crimes.

Lawyer Angus Love, executive director of the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project, said this week that in the past few years, criminal justice reforms have helped slightly lower Pennsylvania's inmate population.

"The (Pennsylvania) Department of Corrections chief, to his credit, is opposing the mandatorys and says it will cause the prison population to go back up, and costs associated with it," Love said.

Because of the shrinking population in Pennsylvania, the state's Department of Corrections closed some of its prisons. According to a story in the Tribune-Review earlier this month, the state closed two facilities in 2013 and plans to close a 1,800-bed facility in Pittsburgh.

Vermont's approximately 270 out-of-state inmates are going to be housed first at a prison called SCI Camp Hill, but could end up at SCI Graterford. According to a story on Philly.com, a new facility is also being built to replace Graterford. It is scheduled to be finished by September, according to the report.

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SCI Camp Hill in Pennsylvania is one of two corrections facilities at which Vermont inmates housed out of state will be jailed.(Photo: FREE PRESS)

"The move would not have an impact on our agreement, other than we might expect that VT inmates could be housed in the new facility once Graterford is closed," said Mike Touchette, the director of facility operations at Vermont's Department of Corrections. "The new facility is right next door to the old facility."

Pennsylvania Department of Corrections spokeswoman Amy Worden said the prison system currently has about 5,000 beds available. Vermont is the only state contracting with Pennsylvania to house inmates.

"The PA DOC’s inmate population fluctuates on a daily basis," Worden wrote in an email Thursday. "At present have about 47,300 inmates – the lowest number in six years - housed in 25 prisons, so we have the ability to move inmates across the system – and we do every day - depending on their needs and prison housing population levels."

SCI Graterford is one of two Pennsylvania prisons at which Vermont inmates housed out of state will be jailed.(Photo: Courtesy Pennsylvania Department of Corrections)

Worden explained in an email last week that operational capacity is the optimum number of inmates housed in a facility that the department tries to meet. The department tries to keep inmate populations somewhere between operational capacity and emergency capacity. Emergency capacity is the total number of beds in the facility at which the department feels it can operate safely, Worden wrote.

"The PA DOC can handle the additional inmates from Vermont without compromising safety and security," Worden wrote. "You will see some prisons are over 'operational capacity' but that does not mean there is 'overcrowding' or that security or treatment ability is compromised."

She added in a follow-up email, "At the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections the safety and security of inmates and staff is paramount. We can house Vermont inmates in a safe and secure manner."

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Mike Touchette, the Department of Corrections' Director of Facility Operations, discusses the recent hostage-taking situation at the Northern State Correctional Facility in Newport during an interview in Waterbury on Thursday, September 15, 2016, (Photo: GLENN RUSSELL/FREE PRESS)

Touchette, of Vermont's Department of Corrections, said the department is not worried about overcrowding.

"In our conversations with the state of Pennsylvania, they said they have somewhere between 5,000 and 6,000 available beds throughout the system," Touchette said. "A single facility closure or more than one facility closure, based on those numbers, would not necessarily put them over population. It's something we will certainly continue to monitor as well."

Claire Shubik-Richards, executive director of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, said having two capacity definitions for prison populations does not raise red flags for her. She also said her group, which advocates for a "humane, just and restorative correctional system," has not heard concerns about overcrowding.

Lawyer Love, however, called the two occupancy standards a "political game," saying definitions of capacity have changed during his career. He said corrections officials could increase capacity by putting two people in cells originally designed for one person or by putting beds in common areas. Worden, from Pennsylvania's Corrections Department, said the department does not do this.

"Design capacity in Pennsylvania is a very relative term," Love said. "It's subject to political manipulation, in my opinion, having been in this business for 30 years."

Contact Elizabeth Murray at 651-4835 or emurray@freepressmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LizMurrayBFP.